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Noveck has turned to the Web to help lower some of the walls that once enclosed the federal bureaucracy.
John Shinkle

Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency administrator

Shortly after starting her new job, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson brought her senior managers together to watch “The Simpsons Movie.” Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie are depicted in their 2007 film fleeing Springfield after an Environmental Protection Agency leader run amok orders a dome placed over the town to contain toxic water pollution. Jackson saw the movie as a statement about how President George W. Bush’s administration handled environmental issues.

“It speaks to the fact that the American people have gotten to the point where they had lost trust in the agency, that the agency could be corrupted enough, if you will, to think of an idea like doming off a city as, you know, a way of protecting the environment,” Jackson recalled in March during a luncheon at the National Press Club.

Jackson, 48, the first African-American to run the EPA, has drawn the wrath of conservative lawmakers by seeking to regulate greenhouse gases for the first time.

A native of the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged 9th Ward in New Orleans and a graduate of Tulane University, Jackson has also been a regular presence along the Gulf Coast since the massive BP oil spill.

Democratic lawmakers appreciate Jackson’s background as a chemical engineer (with a master’s degree in the subject from Princeton University). “I see her in a real reform mode and presenting the case whenever she makes an appearance,” said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.). “She knows what she’s talking about.”

Jackson said she sees her role as trying to restore EPA’s image post-Bush — with a pledge thrown in, for good measure, not to follow the “Simpsons” script. “EPA is back on the job,” she said at the Press Club. “We challenged ourselves, over the past year, to make sure we re-earn the trust of the American people. I hope we’re doing that.”

— Darren Samuelsohn

Jay Angoff, Director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight

Not only does Jay Angoff, director of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight, have to build his new agency from the ground up; he also has to implement a series of insurance industry regulations, some of which the new health care overhaul requires to be in place by September.

He and his team, which was set up in April and already has about 100 people, have the difficult task of enforcing the new rules to rein in the insurance industry while working with its members to implement the law. “In general, we have had pretty good cooperation with the insurance companies,” Angoff said, citing the industry’s quick action on ending most policy rescissions and allowing young adults to stay on their parents’ plans through age 26. “But the bill does give us more enforcement authority. If we believe the insurance companies are violating the law, then we will take the necessary action. Our first preference is to work with the industry.”

Among its many responsibilities, OCIIO will have to shape the rules governing how much an insurer can spend on medical versus administrative costs, oversee the state-based insurance exchanges and compile information for HHS’s website detailing insurance options.

Angoff, 59, has a history of holding a tough line against insurers. He has previously served as insurance commissioner of Missouri, deputy insurance commissioner of New Jersey, director of the Private Health Insurance Group at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and most recently practiced at Mehri & Skalet, focusing on insurance law. He’s quickly studied up on the enormous reform law, but don’t ask him to pick just one part to focus on. That’s “like asking me who my favorite kid is.”

Let's create a public tsunami of opinion to reduce the Defense Dept.'s budget and increase the State Dept.'s budget. Let's close the gender gap in the House and Senate and in all ranks of the military.

Let's acknowledge that the military and top ranks can make bad decisions compounded by more bad decisions. Over forty years ago, we had the utmost confidence in Robert McNamara; belatedly we realized he was wrong and so were we. General Westmoreland persevered for years in Vietnam with the wrong strategy which focused on overwhelming firepower and body counts.